New Bronx 'supportive' housing will help veterans, LGBT youth

By Esther Shittu and Victoria Bekiempis

Jul 15, 2018 | 8:00 PM

Karen Wharton, a retired United States Air Force captain, is pictured in front of the murals outside supportive housing for vets on Kingsbridge Terrace in the Bronx. (Gregg Vigliotti for New York Daily News)

‘LIKE A FAMILY’

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When retired Air Force Capt. Karen Wharton returned to New York in 2014 after four years at a Texas air base, she not only was jobless — she was also homeless, as her Coney Island home was wrecked by Hurricane Sandy.

So she crashed on her brother’s couch, and asked the Department of Veterans Affairs for help “to get back on my feet,” she said.

Trouble was, she still owned her Coney Island property, even though it was uninhabitable.

“They told me to come back in the morning and ask (for) the director, which I did,” Wharton told the Daily News. “That’s how I got in.”

After getting an apartment at the Jericho Project building on Kingsbridge Terrace and Kingsbridge Road, Wharton got help polishing her resume and landed a job at the VA in the Bronx focused on disaster prep.

Wharton, a retired Air Force captain, found herself homeless when her Coney Island home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. With the help of the Bronx VA and the Jericho Project, Wharton was able to find a home again. (Gregg Vigliotti for New York Daily News)

She’s since left that job to pursue a masters in international relations at Webster University -- and says she’s able to do so because of Jericho House’s ongoing support.

She walked into the building “with my head down,” she remembers. “Now I hold my head up high,” said Wharton, who came to the U.S. from Trinidad at age 19 and has since become a citizen.

For veterans like Wharton at risk of winding up on the streets — as well as vulnerable LGBTQ youth — a new development in the Bronx offers stable, affordable housing, and help getting work, schooling and health care.

Besides providing homeless and low-income vets and LGBT youth low-cost homes, there will be services to help residents with health care, education and employment, city officials said.

The University Heights project, located on Walton Ave. at E. Burnside Ave., is being developed by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), Jericho Project and affordable housing developer B&B Urban.

“This administration has made a significant commitment to create more supportive housing, one of the most effective solutions to help individuals struggling with homelessness get back on solid ground,” HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer said in a statement.

“Walton House is the first supportive housing project to be completed under the Mayor’s 15/15 Initiative to build 15,000 units of supportive housing over 15 years and provides 89 brave veterans and LGBTQ young adults with safe and secure permanent homes to build a foundation for the future,.”

Maria Luisa Martins is another resident of supportive housing who told The News how its services — like the ones Walton House is expected to provide — got her life back on track.

Raised in a Catholic household, Martins said that when she came out at age 16, her relationship with her mother deteriorated.

Maria Martins, pictured inside her apartment near Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, had struggled to find stable housing in New York after her mother refused to let her stay in her apartment after she came out as gay. (Gregg Vigliotti for New York Daily News)

When Martin was 18, her mom found out that she had left Queensboro Community College and started working. Martin’s mother told her she couldn’t stay unless she was taking courses.